After all the acrimony Dish Network faced with the networks over skipping commercials, Dish has a twist for this Sunday: Watch the commercials!

Dish’s AutoHop feature on its Hopper DVRs let customers easily skip commercials. When set, a recorded TV show barely stutters during the commercial skip and the watcher probably doesn’t realize the advertising he just missed.

But since many people tune in to the Super Bowl just to watch the commercials, Dish took an alternative approach to promoting the AutoHop and announced the “Reverse AutoHop.”

Customers can enable Reverse AutoHop and watch the commercials back to back uninterrupted!

The big caveat though is you can’t do this until Monday. And you need to record the Super Bowl and have PrimeTime Anytime feature enabled for NBC prior to the game.

Commercials not your thing? You can also rewatch the game. A day later. Woot.

Five months after announcing that Denver would be one of its first cities to get gigabit Internet service, CenturyLink officially announced 16 city neighborhoods that can now order the speedy service (see list below).

Where’s Denver Gigabit?

Baker

Bonnie Brae

Belcaro

Cole

Congress Park

Corey Merrill

Overland

Park Hill

Platt Park

Rosedale

Stapleton (certain parts)

Washington Park West

Washington Park East

University

University Park

Villa Park

This doesn’t mean that every single resident in these neighborhoods can order gigabit Internet from CenturyLink today. But the chances are good, said Jim Campbell, regional vice president for regulatory and legislative affairs.

“We wouldn’t put it in a release if it wasn’t a substantial portion (of the neighborhood),” Campbell said on Wednesday.

The company doesn’t want to offer an availability map or too many detailed specifics out of competitive concerns and to put a specific number out there. It’s always changing, Campbell added, and homes that may not be able to order it today probably can shortly.

While he encourages potential customers to go online look up their address first, definitely call CenturyLink to verify whether your home can order the service if you’re in these neighborhoods. Here’s the number: 877-417-3972.

Gigabit speeds mean a download speed of 1,000 megabits per second. Typical broadband services offer around 10 Mbps. Slower and older Internet service like DSL is more in the 1 Mbps range. Internet-only plans at 1-gig are around $110 for the first 12 months.

CenturyLink made its announcement not in some spiffy, modern location where high-tech hipsters meander about with their black coffee. Rather, officials — including Penny Larson, CenturyLink’s new leader for Denver and Colorado — visited the East Denver neighborhood of Cole, at the old St. Charles Recreation Center gymnasium. It’s where Mayor Michael Hancock said he once played football. He thanked CenturyLink for bringing the service to a neglected neighborhood, but also one that is attracting development and Millennials.

Mayor Michael Hancock with his new 1 Gig T.

“We cannot have a city that doesn’t give them the capacity to access high-speed innovation as well as to transact their business or to get their content in a real way,” said Hancock, during the official CenturyLink press conference. “This is a big deal in Denver. We want to thank CenturyLink for not only coming to Denver but for understanding how critical it is to make sure reach neighborhoods that are in the city that maybe don’t have access to this kind of capacity so that we can transform their lives.

The St. Charles Recreation Center, by the way, is getting hooked up with gigabit Internet. CenturyLink is also offering an affordable broadband service option for residents who are part of Medicaid, the national Free Lunch program and 9 other federal programs. The deal includes Internet service for $9.95 to $14.95 a month, plus computer training classes that may be offered at the center. A netbook computer for $150 and 2-years of broadband can also be ordered for $150 plus taxes. Here are more details about the program: centurylink.com/home/internetbasics

Love to hear it when a local company is growing — especially a completely geeky one that makes 3D printers that make even more 3D printers!

Aleph Objects and its LulzBot printers entertained Rep. Jared Polis at its new 17,000-square foot headquarters in Loveland recently and shared photos plus an update on the company.

I couldn’t make it myself, but I’m sure Polis loved it. What politician wouldn’t appreciate a local company that just a year ago that has more than tripled its staff in a year? Aleph employs 70 people today and is apparently still in need of more good workers.

Rep. Jared Polis (in blue) gets a closer look at Aleph Objects new headquarters in Loveland, where the 3D printer company now employs 70 people.

And here’s Rep. Polis’s quote the company shared: “I am a big fan of the Open Source movement. I’m very excited we have an Open Source Hardware and Software and presence here in Colorado, on both the industry side as well as the consumer side. And it’s really exciting to hear about all the great new ideas and products coming out of LulzBot.”

Aleph is also known for its open-source 3D printer philosophy. Open-source, in this case, means that all the printers come with the actual printer designs, specifications and documentation so owners can tweak their machines however they want to and keep them updated instead of becoming obsolete.

So — and this is a little mind-boggling — you can buy a printer (or get the design/source code for free and build it yourself) and when Aleph comes up with a faster, better design, the company will share it with you so you can print out the new printer on your existing printer!

LulzBot Mini

Aleph has turned this into a business and at the Loveland facility, 135 printers print new printers that are sold to customers.

So, what do they need 70 people for? Well, someone has to assemble those printers! And there’s obviously a need to have smart people who can develop faster, better technology.

One result of having people at a self-replicating 3D printer factory is the recent launch of the LulzBot Mini, a fast, compact little printer selling for $1,350. (Other LulzBot’s sell between $1,595 and $2,195.)

After his visit Rep. Polis tweeted a selfie with Aleph’s cluster of 135 LulzBot 3D printers. Looks like I’ll need to make a visit myself soon.

“What do you mean exit? We just started our business,” Walker remembers thinking.

That was two years ago last October. The fast-growing photo album site has kept the sisters and Walker’s husband, Matty, quite busy. In the first 18 months, it turned into a “multi-million dollar company seeing triple digit growth,” the company shared on Pinterest.

This week, Artifact Uprising has a new owner, the Visual Supply Co. in Oakland. VSCO targets creative types and photographers and offers photo apps and software. Read more…

Fox News returned to TV sets of Dish Network customers after nearly four weeks of nothingness.

Fox had pulled the channel along with Fox Business after negotiations for a new contract apparently went sour on December 20.

Terms of the new agreement were not disclosed.

But not to fear Fox fans. The new deal is for multiple years.

The agreement comes a week after Dish announced a new TV service that will only be offered online and to mobile-device users. Sling TV, which is expected to debut this month, will cost $20 and offer 12 channels, including ESPN, Disney and HGTV. No mention if Fox will be joining Sling in the near future. More details: Dish launches Sling TV, cheap service for those who’ve cut the cable

CenturyLink isn’t saying exactly who can get its gigabit-fast Internet service in Colorado. It promises an update later this month.

But what we do know is the company is only building true fiber-optic service within the boundaries of Denver (and a few other cities outside of Colorado). And there are definitely neighborhoods in Denver that can order service today of up to 1 gigabit per second — that’s 1,000 Mbps, or 10 to 100 times faster than typical broadband services.

Gigabit is, apparently, “perfect” in the same way as 100 Mbps

If you live in Park Hill, Washington Park, Glendale and several others, you probably can order it. Just type your address into CenturyLink’s gigabit checker to see if the gigabit option comes up for $110 a month.

Boulder’s Zayo Group continues to expand by acquisition. Today, it announced that it will pay $675 million for Latisys Holdings, a Douglas County company that has data centers and provides cloud and hosting services in the U.S. and London.

Latisys has eight data centers in five regions — Northern Virginia, Chicago, Denver, Orange County and London. Latisys also has about 1,100 customers who are predominantly medium to large enterprise customers.

Get up to $250,000 for your business with the Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge. Deadline is Jan. 16, 2015.

For a chance at the $250,000 top prize, entrepreneurs just need to enter the Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge, an annual event in Fort Collins that is part business-pitch competition, part networking opportunity.

Organizers are looking for 16 companies to compete for the money plus a year of mentoring from Blue Ocean Enterprises, the venture arm of OtterBox founder Curt Richardson. But you can’t just submit an idea. The Challenge requires that companies have at least $100,000 in gross revenue.

The competition is sponsored by the Colorado State University, hence it also encourages students to compete in additional challenges, including the Trolley Pitch where students have 2 minutes to pitch their idea before the trolley gets to its next stop. A separate challenge is open to college students who want to prove an idea. Twelve competitors will compete for $20,000. Students must be currently enrolled or recent alumni from an accredited university in Colorado.

Entrepreneurship is not only in Zayo Group’s roots but in the people the company relies on, like board member Linda Rottenberg. As the CEO of the non-profit Endeavor, she helps entrepreneurs around the world take risks to grow their business and encourage others. It’s not about starting up, but scaling up a business.

Zayo is well known for supporting the start-up community. But as the Boulder provider of broadband networks for office buildings knows, it’s about getting to the next level and that’s probably why Rottenberg is on its board.

The company is hosting a book signing with Rottenberg on Tuesday, Jan. 13, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at eTown Hall in Boulder. The event includes a reception and fireside chat with Caruso, Zayo’s founder and CEO.

The event is free and open to the public, but you need to register at this link HERE.

I never felt the need for a kitchen scale because I’m trained in the school of winging it. But when I saw this kitchen scale from Drop, its appeal went well beyond any measure.

The scale itself has Bluetooth built-in so it’ll communicate with a nearby iPad (it only works with iPads) that has the matching app.

It, of course, measures ingredients to under a gram, which is really helpful for those annoying recipes that call for 100 grams of granulated sugar. Watch the video above to see how it works.

The Drop scale does more than just measure ingredients. It also adjusts recipes if you don’t have enough of one ingredient.

Drop built a database of interactive recipes that let you adjust recipes based on the amount of ingredients. For example, if you only have a half cup of chocolate chips for a cookie recipe, just hit the “Scale Recipe” button and the recipe adjusts the other ingredients to the amount of chocolate chips.

It also offers a step-by-step guide to cooking so even dummies can make Spiced Mushroom Pastry Parcels or a number of recipes from Drop’s cookbook.

Not enough powdered sugar? Just hit “Scale Recipe” and it automatically adjusts the recipe based on how much sugar you do have.

Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She previously spent 10 years doing the same thing for The Orange County Register before taking a hiatus to move here and become a SAHM to a precocious toddler.

Laura Keeney is a business reporter with The Denver Post, covering aerospace, aviation and biotech. Over the last two decades, she's covered everything from agribusiness to punk rock. Keeney holds an AACSB-accredited MBA from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY.